Monday, September 24, 2012

Refuse to fall down. If you cannot refuse to
fall down, refuse to stay down. If you cannot refuse to stay down, lift
your heart toward heaven, and like a hungry beggar, ask that it be
filled, and it will be filled. You may be pushed down. You may be kept
from rising. But no one can keep you from lifting your heart toward
heaven.Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Monday, September 10, 2012

This morning, as I was soulfully and mindfully preparing myself for a new day, I found myself gazing out the window, coffee cup in hand. And simply watching how a new day was coming to life and awakening before me.

Children and their mothers were walking past my window on their way to school. There were smiles in the voices I was hearing. First day of school. First day of a new year and a new chapter. I found myself smiling as well, and suddenly sweetly nostalgic with my "first day back to school" memories as a child. Oh how I loved those days. There was an innocence. There was an excitment. There was a determination. I was proud of my new books. My new pens and pencils. I was young and I felt all grown up. And as though the world was waiting for me. That was all that mattered.

And so much of that came back as I simply sat there this morning. Gazing out the window. And then I simply said good morning to the tree outside my window. In the past weeks of being here in my new home, in my new street... This tree has become particularily fond to me. She has in her own sense, already become a part of "home" for me. A sense of familiarity. There's something protective about her, but subtle. I couldn't even tell you what kind of tree she is. All I can tell you, is she's beautiful. And she's proud.

And then that reminded me of one of my favourite writings from Hesse. Hermann Hesse.

I think those words simply need to be shared today. Maybe that's all that needs to be said today.

'Trees' (from Wandering)

by Hermann Hesse

For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured. And every young farmboy knows that the haredest and nobleest wood has the narrowest rings, that high on the mountains and in continuing danger the most indestructible, the strongest, the ideal trees grow.

Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.

A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.

When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.

A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the wind at evening. If one listens to them silently for a long time, this longing reveals its kernel, its meaning. It is not so much a matter of escaping from one's suffering, though it may seem to be so. It is a longing for home, for a memory of the mother, for new metaphors for life. It leads home. Every path leads homeward, every step is birth, every step is death, every grave is mother.

So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts. Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.

About Me

a sagittarius. and a dreamer. but a believer. and a doer. it's the simple things that make me smile most. summer days. winter days. a walk along the shore. wishing and dreaming myself to these shores. a cup of coffee with a friend. a quiet walk thru hills and valleys. a glass of wine in the evening. a beautiful song on the radio. a quote that makes me reflect. say yes. words. and actions.
i believe we should love life. passionately. out loud. and in colour.
dare. to be bold. cause magic. share secrets.
originally from canada. now living in europe. germany to be exact. in a place one calls the black forest.
that's all for now. little bits and pieces of me.